Urban Compass - my observations & I need help

fulloflead

fulloflead

Joined
May 3, 2002
Messages
6,192
I'm the kind of guy who can always find his way out of the woods, but can never find my way back to the same door I entered through at the mall. In Colorado cities it's easy to figure which direction you're going as long as you can see the mountains, but in other cities I can never figure which way is north.

I always carry a compass on my keychain and on my recent trip to NYC it failed me! :( I checked my street map and my compass and headed off to find a tourist attraction only to find myself, after many blocks in the intense heat and humidity, headed in the wrong direction. After checking my compass again with considerable jiggeling and tapping, I got it to consistently swing in one direction and found that I was 180 degrees off course. Too much friction or something - I guess - because I have to jiggle it and rotate it a few times or I can't trust it. :rolleyes:

Another odd thing is that my compasses in Colorado have an air bubble in them that seems to hinder the swinging of the hands even further, but when I brought my keychain one to New York the air bubble disappeared. It makes sense to me that because of the altitude the case probably expands at my home altitude creating room for an air bubble and is compressed at sea level, ridding itself of the bubble. (Interesting, huh?)

I HAVE to get a new one to carry that will:
a.) Not have an air bubble.
b.) Not have so much friction.
& c.) Not be too big for my keychain.

As far as A & B go, I should probably look through them at a LOCAL store to see which have bubbles in them and which don't. (Unless they're SUPPOSED to have a bubble. :confused: )

With C I'd definately lean toward the bigger side than the smaller side. I've never seen one of those little ones that you see in knives work worth a crap.

Another strange thing is that I've noticed that NORTH on the compass is never north on a city street - I assume this is the difference between true north and magnetic north - so I'm sure this will always be a problem.

Any comments and/or suggestions? I don't mind having a handful of compasses around, but it's definately time to get a reliable/quality one to keep on me as I'm in the habit of doing with (apparantly) a crappy one and I don't mind paying a lot for a good one if neccessary.

.
 
It could be the difference in altitude/air pressure that caused your bubble to disappear, but it could also be a side-effect of whatever damaged the bearing. Either way, you're right that it's time to get a new compass. :)

My favorite small compasses are the Suunto clip-on models that are designed to attach to a watch band. I've had two, one for many years, and they've held up perfectly. They aren't large enough to provide precision bearings, but they are more than adequate for my needs. Suunto makes similar models with lanyard attachments or with slightly larger fobs that include themometers and such.

--Bob Q
 
I keep a Suunto clipped to my watchband too and I find it useful in cities and malls and hospitals and other large buildings. I use it more inside buildings than on the street. It has an air bubble and that annoys me but it works well enough anyway. It doesn't give you a precise reading but you don't need that in an urban setting. The streets of most cities don't align with either magnetic or true north so learning your local compass deviation won't help you -- but you don't need much precision to tell a so-called north-south street from a so-called east-west street.

The Suunto clip-on has an axis pivot that goes to the top of the case as well as the bottom so you can't center the air bubble. Bigger compasses have a domed crystal top so you can use the air bubble to level it -- then it's a help rather than an annoyance. Unfortunately all the watchband compasses I've seen have an axis pivot. The Suunto has the advantage that you can turn it to set a bearing or to compensate for deviation. The disadvantage is it clips on and can come unclipped and get lost -- I lost one that way. Some others slide on and can't get lost as easily, but you can't set that kind to a bearing.
 
Cougar Allen said:
The streets of most cities don't align with either magnetic or true north so learning your local compass deviation won't help you -- but you don't need much precision to tell a so-called north-south street from a so-called east-west street.
Click to expand...

Good point. Generally, people mean "mostly north" or "mostly east", anyway.

Cougar Allen said:
I keep a Suunto clipped to my watchband too...
Click to expand...

I may check out their product line since ya-all keep mentioning them, but I wouldn't put one on my nice watch. ;)

Keychain is perfect for me since I carry a big keychain with a carabiner (sp?) and a bunch of little lights and an Emerson LaGriffe hanging from it anyway. My G.F. calls them my "janitor keys". :D

I do wonder if being in contact with metal keys and things containing batteries can hurt the magnatism of the compass. Anyone know? (Once I had a little Tool-Logic flashlight on the keychain that contained a little magnet on a swivel arm so you could attach the flashlight to things. It didn't take me long to figure out that that was a bad idea. ;) )

.
 
Try a magnet on your keys. You might find a steel key but you probably won't -- they're rare these days. The ring you keep them on might be steel -- the common split rings are. If I were keeping a compass on my keyring I think I would use a non-steel ring. I would avoid keeping anything made of steel in the same pocket, too.
 
Cougar Allen said:
Try a magnet on your keys. You might find a steel key but you probably won't -- they're rare these days. The ring you keep them on might be steel -- the common split rings are. If I were keeping a compass on my keyring I think I would use a non-steel ring. I would avoid keeping anything made of steel in the same pocket, too.
Click to expand...

It's probably an issue, then. You should see my keychain. Maybe THAT'S my problem and not the compass itself. :confused:

By the way, mine is a Brunton like someone posted a link to earlier, except mine is glow-in-the-dark plastic.

.
 
By the way, you can clip a compass to a steel watchband. They're nonmagnetic stainless. So is the watch case.
 
greg c said:
http://tadgear.com/x-treme gear/compasses main/model_150.htm

http://www.trunord.com/

Not liquid filled = no bubble but also equals a bit more swinging until it settles down.

I've got three and they never let me down, but nowadays I carry a Suunto dp-65 with a global needle.

-G
Click to expand...

Hey, those look pretty cool.

I played with mine a bit more. It turns REAL slow back to N and sometimes requires a tap or two even on a flat table. I wonder if it has become LESS magnetic from all the steel items, batteries, etc on my keychain.
 
I own & use two Sun MiniComp 2:

sun-minicomp2.jpg


Like you, I tend to use them most in urban settings. It helps when this country mouse gets lost in London!

maximus otter
 
I have a Silva NL2 which has never failed me and it fits nicely into my pants or even shirt pocket (I think Silva is marketed under the name Brunton is the USA).

Plus if you can see the sun and know the time, you will always know which direction you're facing. In Scandinavian cities we have the added advantage that there are many Cathedrals and churches, and their steeples almost always point westward.
 
Suunto wrist compass is an excellent choice for urban "near enough" bearings.
A really good keyring compass is the Marbles little brass thingy, about 1" face. It will take the knocks that are inflicted on a pocket compass without problem.
Steel keys and other pocket junk should not affect the accuracy of your compass, provided you keep the junk away when you take a bearing, but again, "near enough is good enough"
One thing to keep right away from your keyring compass is your mobile phone (cellphone) as it has a magnet in the works, and will severely affect your compass if you store it the same pocket. or try to use the compass too close to the cellphone.
Keys in the left pocket and cellphone in the right should give you no problems.

Like fulloflead, I have good sense of direction in the weeds, but the city environment throws me, and the little Marbles is an essential companion.
 
A compass may not work properly in NYC. :D Too much metal used in buildings and such. When I'm at my desk, my compass tells me north is south, but when I go to a window facing north, the compass points north. When a compass malfunctions and your backup doesn't work either, it's best to use the acronym SURVIVAL:

Size up the situation
Undue haste makes waste
Remember where you are
Vanquish fear and panic
Improvise
Value living
Act like the natives
Learn basic skills

The Act Like The Natives part is important here. Us New Yorkers get our sense of direction from the way traffic moves and/or the orientation of landmarks like the Empire State Building. For instance, traffic on 5th Ave. moves south only, 6th Ave traffic moves northward. If you're in Central Park and you see the Empire State Building, you're facing south. If you're by one of two rivers and you see a large clock with the word "Colgate" on it, you're at the Hudson and facing west. If you see the Statue of Liberty, you're facing south (but only if you're on Manhattan island). :)

Lots of ways to figure out direction in NYC without a compass. :)
 
Toronto usually isnt that hard either, look for CN tower, if you are on the lake then you are facing north, if you are uptown then your facing south :)
 
I have had one of those keychain Brunton for a long time, I guess more than 20 years, I don't remember, it's glow in the dark and I keep it on a brass key ring, it developed a large bubble after years of use and I drilled a small hole in the bottom to get rid of all the liquid, it still works and I use it though it looks dirty and worn, I once showed it to the guy at the local boy scout shop and he said that it had a lifetime warranty and if I had not drilled it I could have gotten a free replacement, I'm a good customer of the place and he gave me a free Brunton button compass, but I still prefer the old one.

Luis

Edited to add picture:

5y6v0h
 
Well, this turned into a worth-while thread, hopefully, for more people than just myself. There are so many posts that beg replies...

Maximus Otter,
I carried mine in London. It didn't help! The streets are like spaghetti! I just took the Underground. ;)

BlueyM,
I guess there are too many variables in my experiment. I do have that big wad of keys that hangs from a belt loop just outside my left front pocket which contains my cell phone. I'm going to move my cellphone to my right pocket and see.

grnamin,
The metal buildings! Crap, more to consider! I was in a steel canyon on the day it happened. Hmmm. I did figure out the uptown/downtown and street number thing. That helped. I gotta tell you - that whole thing where you can walk up and out of a subway station, go across the street and down and end up on the SAME side of the tracks in the same station is a dirty trick. The London Tube is much, much better.

Don Luis,
My "faulty" one that I'm complaining about is the same as the larger white one in the picture you posted. Maybe, just for laughs, I'll eventually drill and drain it.

All,
I found another Brunton at home that's blue about the same size, has a skinny pointer and a thermometer that works MUCH better than my white one. If I put them flat on a desk and rotate them, the white one will slowly return to N, but sometimes varies several degrees one way or the other. The blue one will swing as fast as I can turn the base and always stays consistent.

I'm going to carry them BOTH for a while and see if I can figure out what the heck is going on. I'll keep my phone in my right pocket, but keep them both on my big keychain. We'll see if the white one starts working better or if the blue one quits working so good. Same brand.

Meanwhile, at least with two, I can double check my bearing while I'm in the midst of the experiment.

.
 
fulloflead said:
The metal buildings! Crap, more to consider! I was in a steel canyon on the day it happened. Hmmm. I did figure out the uptown/downtown and street number thing. That helped. I gotta tell you - that whole thing where you can walk up and out of a subway station, go across the street and down and end up on the SAME side of the tracks in the same station is a dirty trick. The London Tube is much, much better..
Click to expand...

Heck, I drove over one bridge and then over another and ended up back where I started. :D
 
grnamin said:
Heck, I drove over one bridge and then over another and ended up back where I started. :D
Click to expand...

I used to live on Staten Island long ago. The joke was that you couldn't get off the island without paying or swimming. :D
 
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